SARS update
3/28/03 10:20 AM ET
Paul Kedrosky
Another SARS update. Some significant developments to report:
The underlying agent is not, as had been reported, a virus from the paramyxoviridae family. It is a new coronavirus, a rogue variant of the common cold.
SARS relies on "super-spreaders", early highly infectious infectees.
Toronto, Ontario, where there has been a spate of infections and four deaths, is urging almost 3,000 people to stay home voluntarily to see whether they develop SARS.
SARS (line is deaths; bar is cases) is spreading slowly yet steadily, certainly not as virulent as influenza, or even the common cold, but SARS has higher mortality than either.
Some, especially in Asian brokerage firms, are beginning to see how SARS (whether people are being alarmist or not) is a hammer blow to pacific airlines, like Singapore Air and the rest.
While MMM and MSA hardly represent pure plays, stories are also legion about surgical masks being in short supply worldwide. |
